Sunday, May 8, 2011

"A recent UN report confirms that at least 1,300 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces since the outset of the al-Aqsa uprising in 2000.

The United Nations office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a report that 1,335 Palestinian children were shot dead as a result of Israeli air and ground attacks or indiscriminate gun fire by Israeli soldiers, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday.

“The international community should offer protection for Palestinian children so that they can have a better social and educational environment,” said Amjad Shawa, Coordinator of Palestinian NGO Network.

According to the Palestinian ministry of health, 15 children have been killed in Gaza alone since the beginning of 2011 -- three of them while playing in front of their house.

“The children were just playing out in the street like the way they always did and then all of a sudden rockets were fired towards them. They were killed just because they were playing,” the victims' uncle Yaser Alhelou said.

In 2006, Israeli artillery fire hit the Athamna family house in northern Gaza, killing 16 family members, including seven children.